Nokia is providing plans for their customers to 3D print their own cell phone covers

Nokia has jumped into the 3D printing arena by releasing designs and specifications to allow their customers to create their own cell phone covers for the Nokia 820 handset.

The Finnish mobile phone maker has already released various digital files that contain phone measurements, drawings and material recommendations. Nokia provides these files within a 3D-printing Development Kit (3DK for short), and they can be found here, here and here.

The Nokia Lumina 820 cell phone features a removable shell which customers can replace with a Nokia made (or 3rd party made) shell in different colors and designs. This 3D printer development kit enables an end user to create their own case design offers almost limitless personalization possibilities.

“In the future, I envision wildly more modular and customizable phones.”, says Joel Willans in a Nokia blog post.

Nokia is the first cell phone company to delve into the world of 3D printing in this way. Like many other technology companies they use 3D printers for product development and prototyping but they see a future in which users will be able to create their own hardware.

How long before phone manufacturers just supply the cell phone’s electronics and the end user can create their own 3D printed case?